The Block: Bitcoin mining pool Poolin acquires hashrate of NovaBlock

Chinese bitcoin mining pool Poolin has acquired the hashrate of rival North America-based NovaBlock to expand in the continent.

The hashrate migration is getting completed on February 8, which is when NovaBlock's hashrate, 1.07 exahash per second (EH/s), will be merged with Poolin's 12.28 EH/s. (The hashrate figures are 7-day moving averages (7DMA), per data from BTC.com).

The acquisition will still keep Poolin at the second rank, taking its total 7DMA hashrate to 13.35 EH/s. The current largest bitcoin mining pool, F2Pool, has a 7DMA hashrate of 15.79 EH/s, per BTC.com.

Post the hashrate acquisition, NovaBlock will continue to operate independently, Poolin vice president Alejandro De La Torre told The Block. Other aspects of its business will also remain unaffected, he said.

As for why Poolin chose NovaBlock, De La Torre said Poolin "strives to be an international pool," and the hashrate transfer from NovaBlock "furthers this endeavor we have set out for ourselves."

Looking to the future, Poolin plans to also provide new financial tools through its Poolin Wallet, said De La Torre. "Another large focus for us is the financialization of hashrate through the MARS project, bridging the world of CeFi [centralized finance] and DeFi [decentralized finance] in bitcoin mining," he said.